Law-Avoiding Citizen: Workplace Conduct

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” – Paul, from Galatians 5:22-25 (ESV)

For the Christian living by the Spirit and thereby walking by the Spirit, a dichotomy between Christian-ethic and work-ethic cannot exist. The ethos of Christian faith epitomized in Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit, reveals the heart-condition of a believer. A Christian, like a tree, produces fruit according to its kind; if the fruit of the Spirit is absent from a believer’s spiritual limbs, that believer may be assumed to be a species of tree other than that of the Spirit. Living by the Spirit symbolizes the spiritual, life-giving blood of a believer; walking by the Spirit symbolizes the motion enacted by that spiritual, life-giving blood. Therefore, when an authentic Christian walks into the workplace, he will be walking in by the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit stems from healthy, Spirit-filled roots; thence love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are neither guidelines nor rules: they are results. Thus, the fruit of the Spirit is not solely a mark of the perennial practice of virtue, which one can stop practicing; rather, the fruit of the Spirit is the hallmark of spiritual character, inundated by an idyllic cooperation with the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, resultsof the Spirit are neither severable nor discretionary once one engages in the business setting. An authentic, Spirit-filled, working Christian will:

Value peace with co-workers

Seek joy in work

Love even the surliest manager and/or subordinate

Understand patience with deadlines, new employees, and frustrating employees

Exercise self-control­ when tensions tighten or a customer is most assuredly not right

“Against such things there is no law…” surmises Paul’s emphasis on freedom in Christ, which is the context of Galatians 5. Likewise, following after the Spirit’s leading frees us from striving toward a standard of business conduct; following the Spirit’s leading generates a new standard of business conduct. This phenomenon occurs because following the Spirit is not following; rather, following the Spirit is walking because of Him. So, the Christian, living and walking by the Spirit, cannot divorce Christian-ethic and work-ethic.